15 Years
by renee561
Summary: AU as of 6th year. Harry just lost one of the closest people he had considered a father, his Godfather. His sixteenth birthday is approaching and he needs to be told secrets that only the dead know. Course that doesn't mean magic can't trick people into believing someone is dead. Starts before Chapter 2, and will include more emotion in several characters that seems to be missing.
1. Prolouge

**_A/N: I don't own Harry Potter. This was inspired by a story where Lily doesn't die and returns during Harry's sixth year, I can't seem to find it anymore. Pettigrew is not Snape's R&R._**

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_Prologue_

A faint pop could be heard throughout the empty streets of Spinner's End; a hooded figure hurried to the house she knew too well, the house of her friend. The rap of her heels on the street were the only sounds she heard. She hadn't seen her friend in almost seventeen years, that was a long time, she thought on what had happened the last time she had been at her friend's home. Flashes of dark eyes, pale skin, and of indescribable pleasure, went through her head as she shuddered; yes, a long time indeed.

Walking past the other houses that either were bordered up or had broken windows, the figure mentally prepared for the torrent of questions that were sure to be asked by him. Questions he would ask that were going to be hard to explain without the fear of doubt being thrown at her. It was hard enough to know that she regretted leaving her child without his mother for almost fifteen years. She also lived with the regret of hurting the man almost seventeen years ago.

After reaching her destination, the last house on the cobbled street, the hooded figure gathered all of her courage and knocked twice. All she could hear was the sound of her labored breathing and the pounding of her rapidly beating heart in her delicate ears, so it blocked out everything else. Thoughts of what he probably would say to her after she told her secret. She shuddered at the thought of the betrayal he must feel.

After a minute or two the door opened and a velvet voice inquired, "Who the bloody hell are you?"

Her breath caught in her throat at the voice that made her insides melt to mush and her knees grow weak.

Taking out her wand, she let three sparks fly out; one green, one gold and one blue. The three intertwined and spelled a name in an elegant script. '_Lily A. Evans_.'

The man looked at the name as it began to disappear than at the figure before him. The cloak was a dark emerald-green color and covered any skin. The hood was emerald with a red trim. A symbol of an intertwined wand and something else, he couldn't make it out, was on the left breast of the cloak.

"I do not know who you are or what you want, but I would recommend you not to joke. Lily Evans has been dead for nearly fifteen years now. She lies beside her husband in Godric's Hollow's cemetery. I will only ask you once to leave and never come back," his voice was steel and she didn't doubt his expression was too.

"Come now, Severus, you don't honestly believe I would come all this way just to be turned away do you?" she asked with a faint smile behind the hood of her cloak.

He narrowed his eyes, yet he was scared. He hadn't heard that voice for nearly seventeen years, not since... he shook his head, he'd not be fooled by this figure, nor will he think of _**that **_night.

"I do not know who the hell you think you are, but you are not Lily Evans; she'd died protecting her son," he never used Potter when saying Lily's name; it reminded him that he couldn't have been with her. It reminded him that she left him for a Potter. That he wasn't good enough for her.

"I will prove to you who I am, or who I'm not. However, if you would be polite enough to let me into your house; I'd like to discuss this inside and not on the front step," she told him with a smirk on her face, her wand safely in her cloak pocket.

He looked at the figure before stepping back inside the house, letting her in.

The woman entered the house and closed the door behind her, so that they both heard the click of the door. She stood there a moment before lowering her cloak; long red hair fell down her back, ending in the middle of it. She placed the emerald cloak on the coat stand that stood right beside her.

Severus' heart rate increased a bit when he saw the hair, no one he'd seen had hair that shade. The shade was a darker auburn with it falling in waves to her middle back; but it couldn't be!

Masking his surprised, Severus asked her, "Now, if you would sit, you can tell me who you are and what you want. Then be on your way."

The woman turned and sat down, looking in his eyes to where she knew his emotion lay when he masked his face. She wasn't surprised to see the terror or the confusion. She was however shocked to see the curiosity.

"Well, since you don't believe me, ask me a question only Lily would know," she felt it odd referring to herself in the third person, but she had to prove that it was really her; otherwise her coming here would have all been in vain.

Severus thought for a while of a suitable question, "What was the date of the night she and I last saw each other?"

Only one other person knew of that, and Regulus died shortly after that night.

"I know you won't believe me, no matter what I would say. I could take some Veritaserum if you prefer."

Severus summoned a vial from his lab, and handed it to her.

"Three drops would be significant," he said to her.

He watched as she took three drops on her tongue, and corked the vial, placing it on the slightly wobbled table.

"September 21st, 1979. You were with your mother at the hospital, she was sick with the Wizard's Flu, and had a year, if that to live. You never brought me; you said you didn't want me to see her like that. I didn't wait for you to come back, I packed up my belongings and left. No note to explain my sudden departure," she told him, looking him in the eye.

Severus rested his head on the back of his chair; he thought of that day for a long time, wondering if he could have prevented it. He always thought he could have done something, anything to have changed her mind, to make her stay.

He nodded, no one else would've known, the only other person that had known what had happened that day was now dead. This was really Lily Evans, the love of his life, the one for so long he thought was dead.

"Why are you here, Lily?" Her name fell from his lips like silky velvet, and made her innards shudder with familiar pleasure.

"Two reasons, you and my son. His sixteenth birthday is coming up, and there will be some...surprises. There are also some things that I didn't tell you, I however did tell only Reg and someone else. I went into hiding after the dark lord attacked, leaving everybody to believe I was dead along with James," she said calmly.

He sneered; he hated that name that fell through her lips, "So you left yours and Potter's precious child behind?"

She softly sighed; here it was the moment of truth, "Yes... and no. Yes, my son was placed with my sister, Dumbledore was supposed to place him with you; but, since the spell that I used would need someone with the blood that ran through my veins, my sister was the only option left. My parents died the spring of '81. However, Harry is not James' son, not biologically anyway. James and I, well we... I mean we didn't... you see, we never really..." she cut off and took a deep breath.

Severus raised an eyebrow at her; it wasn't like her to seem so nervous. At least when they were together she wasn't.

"Severus, James Potter was by all accounts, playing for the other team. We both were good friends by the time Harry was born, not saying he didn't find me attractive, for a female; but he only kept up the charade for the public. On Harry's official birth certificate, the biological father is on there, but James had one made with his name placed where the father's name would be and sent that off to the ministry. The real one is in the Potter's Vaults, in the deep vaults of Gringotts."

His eyebrows shot up into his hairline and he tilted his head to the side and said, "The Potter prince was actually not a woman's man, but a man's. If James Potter is not in fact your son's biological father than why does he look so much like him?"

Lily smirked at him and said, "Now, Severus, have you forgotten what I got my master's in after we left school. As I recall we were both studying for our master's in two subjects; yours in Potions and Defense and mine in Defense and —"

"Charms," he finished softly, putting two and two together. A charm was placed on Harry, the day he was born to look like James; a charm that was wearing off. Why come and see him? Harry Potter was born 10 months after she left, and from his understanding, he was born right on time.

She nodded, "Yes. I placed a complex, nearly permanent charm on Harry to keep his identity from certain people, one that shouldn't have been kept; but a few that it was necessary to do. It will dissolve on his sixteenth birthday; however, I needed to tell two people who are involved in this. One I need to tell my son, which will not be easy, and then I need to tell his biological father, which would be harder— seeing as how he thinks I left his bed to warm another's."

She waited for him to catch her hint, and hoped in due time he would forgive her.

Severus looked at her and thought about what she's been saying:

James Potter was playing for the boys' team.

A charm was placed on Harry when he was born.

That charm was running out.

She needs to come clean to her son about his biological father.

Something was still missing, he didn't understand why she was telling him when she should be telling the boy's father not here... unless...

"_I need to tell his biological father, which would be harder—seeing as how he thinks I left his bed to warm another's."_

"He's my son," Severus said looking at the woman sitting in front of him.

She nodded, "Yes, what the world think is Lily and James Potter's son, is actually Lily Evans and Severus Snape's son."


	2. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Snape may seem a bit OOC in this story, but I don't think he actually hated Harry, but was just torn between his resentment that Lily was with James and the fact that she had Harry. Again I don't own Harry Potter. Please Review.**_

_Chapter 1_

He, of course, had never stopped loving her. When she left, he had been heartbroken; too heartbroken to even function properly. His best mate pulled him through that first month, and then when he died, things were worse. He finally pulled himself up, only to fall back down when he heard the wedding announcement of Lily and his mortal enemy, James bloody Potter four months after she had left. He stayed on the ground until he realized that she must have left for Potter. Those reasons alone made him hate James Potter more. Not Lily, whom gave him many reason's to hate her or be mad at her, but his reasoning was simple, he wasn't as good as Potter. Then he picked himself up, and stayed that way until his mother died. Once he picked up those pieces, the 'death' of Lily made him shatter. Then when Harry Potter came to Hogwarts, he looked so much like James that he took his anger and resentment onto the poor boy. For five years he took his pain and sorrow and everything he ever felt towards James Potter onto his enemy's son.

'_No, not James' son: my son. Mine and Lily's son_,' Severus thought as he looked at the woman sitting silently across from him.

Silence elapsed into the small room. Lily was sitting stiffly, waiting for the explosion to come when she finally nodded.

"By blood he is a Snape. You are the only man I've been with... ever," she said looking at him squarely in the eyes, her shields slightly down, just in case he wanted to check for himself.

The explosion never came; Severus just looked at the woman he thought he lost seventeen years ago.

"I had thought that Potter's...your...our...Harry was born on time?" He struggled to say.

She looked guilty again and squirmed in her seat, "Magically extended by a month. Poppy didn't want to, but I _begged_ her. She couldn't reveal anything to you even if you asked her; she's bound by her healer's oath to not leak out patient's wishes unless told otherwise."

Again she waited for him to explode, to yell and scream at her for not telling him about Harry before her '_death'_.

However, Severus wasn't even thinking of yelling at her about anything, least of all what she thought he would. He was just trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had a son, a son with the woman he loves, a son that most likely thought of him as an evil bastard.

"Great, he probably hates me," he mumbled.

Lily looked up at this and sighed, "Nothing is going to shock him more than me being alive, not really you being his father."

Severus looked at her and asked the question that was on his mind, "How did you survive the killing curse? The only person to do that is ..."

He stopped himself, for he didn't know what to call the boy, whom for so long has been know as Potter to him, Potter's son; only to find out that he wasn't, he was his son, his and Lily's son.

Lily hid her smile, sometimes it was nice to see Severus fumble, because he was a confident man, and always knew what to say. It was nice to see him at a loss for words.

"Harry, his name is Harry, Severus; he is named after my father. James thought that since he was my son, I should name him anything I wanted, His full name is Harrison Remus James Snape. Of course that is what was on the real birth certificate. However on the other James put his name as Harrison James Remus, and since we were 'married' his surname became Potter," Lily said to him, looking at the man before her.

He nodded; he thought the name held a ring to it. He had liked her father, he even approached him at one point to gain her parents blessing to propose to her. Henry had been enthusiastic about the prospect of Lily marrying; especially to him, for he knew that he would protect her, no matter the cost to himself. However, that never came to transpire; she had left two weeks after.

"Anyway, after Volde—," Lily was cut off from Severus' look.

"Don't say his name, he has it tabooed now, every time someone says his name, all enchantments around that person is broken," he told her, it was still in the processes of pinpointing the person; but he didn't want to endanger their lives with a slip of the tongue.

Lily nodded, but rolled her eyes, "After the Dark Lord came to the house; I ran up to the nursery and set Harry down. I heard the spells being shouted downstairs, but I was thinking fast about the options. I couldn't think. I knew there was no means of escape, the Dark Lord had put up an anti apparition ward on the house and I couldn't leave my child behind. So I thought of a charm I learned in a book during my masters, it was an ancient spell. I looked at Harry and quickly performed the spell, it would keep him safe. However, I was willing enough to die for my son, our son, but something in me just couldn't do it, I couldn't let him grow up without me. I created a duplicate of myself and animated it after I turned invisible; making the Dark Lord think he killed me. The spell still worked. The only thing I didn't count on was that whatever happened to the dummy, it would mark me. I watched as the Dark Lord tried to kill him, watched as the spell rebounded on the bastard, and almost took the roof clean off. I left after Hagrid came and took Harry. I was weak; the two spells combined took most of my magic. I hid amongst the muggles, became a chemistry professor. The irony of the situation isn't lost on me," Lily said a glazed look overcame her eyes as she thought back to that night.

"After the Dark Lord had gone, why didn't you go and get Harry?" Severus asked, his son's name slipping out of his lips without thought.

She smirked at the easiness that he said it; but frowned at his question, "I couldn't, the spell was a protection against the Dark Lord, if I took him from my sister's then the spell I used would've been broken and he would've been defenceless against him. I knew that night he would return. I haven't been keeping in touch with the Wizarding World, much. The last time I picked up a Daily Prophet was when Fudge became the Minister of Magic; the most useless man I ever had the misfortune to meet."

Severus got up and went through a bookcase to where Lily knew the kitchen was. It didn't take Severus long to come back with some elf made wine and some cubed cheese. Passing her a glass, Severus sat down next to her and said, "Let me catch you up."

As he talked, they drank and snacked on the cheese. Lily listened intently as she listened to his voice, the voice that melted her from the inside out. With half of her glass drained, Lily set it down on the rickety table, she wasn't drunk, nor was she close to it, but she was relaxed.

As he was halfway through Harry's fourth year, Lily said, "So let me get this straight, our son and his friends battled a mountain troll, a cursed broom, a three headed dog, devil's snare, deadly keys, a massive killing chessboard and the Dark Lord all while he was eleven? Then he battled the willow in a flying car that belonged to Arthur, a rouge bludger, man-eating spiders, and a Basilisk when he was twelve? Let us not forget the teenage Dark Lord. Then when he was thirteen he fought Vernon's fat sister, Dementors, Pettigrew and a transformed godfather. Not to mention an insane ex lover of James'. Now you are telling me that the Dark Mark showed up during the Quidditch World Cup, and then he was entered into the Triwizard Tournament in which he Albus _made him compete_?"

She had the habit of talking with her hands, to which made Severus smile as he watched her and listened to the voice of the woman he thought he lost fifteen years ago.

Severus smirked and set his glass down next to hers, "Yes. Wait, Black isn't Potter's godfather?"

Lily shook her head, "James suggested that since the Anti-werewolf laws prevented Remus from officially naming him godfather, that Sirius could be the godfather on paper to _Harry_. Black however, knew that under no uncertain terms was he to stand in Remus' way of being Harry's Godfather. I take it Remus forgot about the talk me and him had; as did Black. Well Remus was also going through a difficult pregnancy with his wife. I wonder how she's doing."

She stressed their son's name because Severus had slipped back to calling him Potter. She let her wonderings get the best of her as she let slip the secret of her friend.

"I didn't know that the wolf was married; that is interesting. While I don't need to know about his personal life, it's odd that he doesn't wear, at the very least, a ring. Black also made it a note to say that Harry was _his_ godson, I find it odd that Lupin didn't correct him," Severus said causally.

This perplexed Lily, as every time she had seen Remus with his wife, he was proud that she was on his arm, with their child growing inside of her.

She made a mental note to ask Remus about Mary's well-being.

"Hmm, that is odd; I will ask Remus about it the next time I see him. Now tell me more about our son's fourth year," Lily said watching as Severus jolted from his thoughts quickly enough.

"Now during the third task he was a pawn in the reconstruction of the Dark Lord. The blood that runs in Harry's veins now runs in the veins of the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord can now touch him, where before he couldn't."

Lily paled; this was something she wasn't expecting. As she listened to what Harry's fifth year was like, she groaned in annoyance. "The Ministry needs to keep their noses out of Hogwarts business. Is Minerva alright? Four stunners at her age, that can't be healthy."

"She was out until the week before term ended, Albus made sure to limit her Order work because of the stress it could put on her chest. She's none too happy with him, saying he's just being too overprotective of her. You know he must be sleeping on the couch for this," Severus said, while he may not like many people from Gryffindor, Minerva and Albus were the only two people that he felt he owed a lot to.

"We've always suspected that there had been more to their relationship than what we saw. It seems we weren't far off. At least Sirius is not bored out of his mind, being stuck in that house all day; he couldn't stand that house, even as a teenager. Must have been torture for him," Lily said with a smile. She remembered Grimmauld Place, the days spent there with Reg and Severus, she remembers Kreacher the elf who, while despised Muggleborns, was decent enough to her.

"I enjoyed his torment, personally; it seemed as though justice finally came for him. Being stuck in a place where he couldn't escape. Although he did try a few times, Molly wasn't too pleased. He, of course, encouraged Harry and his friends to create a defence group, which was against Delores Umbridge's rules of organizations of students; and although it was a secret from Umbridge, it was being closely monitored by the Heads of Houses, secretly of course. Umbridge never knew this either, maybe we should have mentioned something. That was until a Ravenclaw student snitched, they were forced to disband, with punishment of course," he said, thinking back with anger.

He hated the fact that the woman hadn't allowing them any practical in her class, as it would help them with the war and with the exam. He was grateful that the DA was established and that the students actually learned a thing or two in there. While he hated to admit it, Harry had a knack for teaching the dunderheads.

Lily glared at the mention of the Weasley matriarch, they had never gotten along. Lily had her suspicions about the use of Amortentia on Arthur, and never did she hold back her opinion about it. Of course add to the fact that Molly didn't like the fact that her brothers would help her out in pinch if need be; it usually wasn't a good idea to put them in the same room together.

Severus stood from the loveseat; he then picked up the empty glass and the empty plate. He went to grab Lily's glass, when it vanished to the kitchen by Lily before he could.

"Thank you, Sev, but I think you have enough to carry, you were always a bit more clumsy after a glass of wine," Lily teased him.

Rolling his eyes, he vanish the tray and the glass into the kitchen with a wave of his wand, and then helped Lily to her feet. However, when she knocked into him, Severus couldn't help himself. He leaned his head down and kissed her. He hadn't intended to do it, but the feel of her against him again, clouded his better judgement. However, as quick as it was suppose to be, it didn't stay that way as she responded to him eagerly.


End file.
